WAC192/17 – SHIRLEY PURDIE Birrmarriya

– 45 x 45 cm / Natural ochre and pigments on canvas

In this painting Shirley has painted the flowers and seeds of a tree known as nyaardinji in our traditional language Kija – otherwise known as a Terminalia Platyphylla, this type are seen along creeks and is also a species that has edible gum that taste sweet. This is just one of the many bush food that the people of the old days use to live on, it starts to bloom between the month of January – October.. 

Shirley says that the early days women would look at the seeds and flowers and it would remind them of the dresses that were worn in those days. Which looked the same.

In the middle sits the seeds that are surrounded by the blooming red flowers and green leaves,